State v. Hill

• Decision Date: 01 August 2006
• Docket Number: No. COA05-686.,COA05-686.
• Citation: 632 S.E.2d 777
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Todd Layman HILL.
• Court: North Carolina Court of Appeals

Page 777

632 S.E.2d 777

STATE of North Carolina v. Todd Layman HILL.

No. COA05-686.

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

August 1, 2006.

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Appeal by Defendant from judgments entered 10 September 2004 by Judge Zoro J. Guice, Jr. in Henderson County Superior Court. Heard in the Court of Appeals 6 March 2006.

Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth J. Weese, for the State.

Brannon Strickland, PLLC, by Anthony M. Brannon, Raleigh, for Defendant-Appellant.

STEPHENS, Judge.

On 1 December 2003, a grand jury indicted Defendant, Todd Layman Hill, a career law enforcement officer who also owned and operated a pawn shop, on twenty-three charges relating to dissemination of harmful materials to minors, taking indecent liberties with a child, crime against nature, statutory rape or sexual offense, and possession with intent to sell or deliver marijuana. The indictments referenced several different victims and ranged across multiple dates. On motion of the State to which Defendant's trial counsel had "[n]o objection[,]" all charges were joined for trial. Trial began on 31 August 2004 and concluded on 9 September 2004 with twelve guilty verdicts on one count of indecent liberties with a child, three counts of disseminating obscene material to minors, four counts of disseminating harmful material to minors, one count of engaging in a sexual act with a person of the age of fifteen years, one count of crime against nature, one count of possession with intent to sell or deliver marijuana, and one count of maintaining a dwelling to keep controlled substances. Defendant was found not guilty on three charges (one count of possession of drug paraphernalia and two counts of giving alcoholic beverages to minors); two charges of delivering marijuana to minors were dismissed by the trial court at the close of the State's evidence; and the court declared a mistrial as to the remaining six charges (one count of second-degree sexual offense, one count of crime against nature, two counts of taking or attempting to take indecent liberties with a minor, one count of engaging in a sexual act with a thirteen-year-old, and one count of disseminating obscenity to a minor). From judgment on the verdicts entered by Judge Guice on 10 September 2004 imposing an active prison sentence within the presumptive sentencing range of 256 to 317 months, followed by five years of supervised probation, Defendant appeals. For the reasons stated herein, we affirm.

At trial, the State's evidence tended to show the following: One of the victims, C.H., who had known Defendant since C.H. was a little boy, worked for Defendant in Defendant's pawn shop in the summer of 2002. His duties included cleaning out the back of the pawn shop. C.H. was fifteen at the time, and Defendant was thirty-eight. While C.H. was at Defendant's shop, Defendant would periodically give C.H. magazines such as Nugget and Playboy as well as Playboy movies, "just different pornographic material," and ask C.H. what he thought about it. In July 2002, after C.H. had been working two to three hours, Defendant told C.H. that they needed to go to Defendant's home to move an old wood-burning stove. Defendant drove C.H. to his home, where the two loaded the stove onto Defendant's truck from the garage. Afterward, Defendant asked C.H. to come inside for a drink of water. Once inside the house, Defendant took C.H. to a back bedroom ostensibly to show him Defendant's gun collection. While C.H. was looking at the guns, Defendant suddenly grabbed him around the waist, threw him onto the bed, pinned him down, and put his hands down C.H.'s pants. C.H. repeatedly told Defendant to stop, but Defendant persisted and told C.H. that it was "normal for people to do this kind of thing." When C.H. continued to protest, Defendant told him that C.H. "owed" Defendant for the paint ball materials and hunting supplies that Defendant had given him. Then Defendant took off C.H.'s pants and performed oral sex on him until C.H. ejaculated in Defendant's mouth. When the act was over, Defendant told C.H. that he "better not tell anybody" what had happened. All the way back to the pawn shop, Defendant made C.H. "swear and promise that [he] would never tell anybody." For a time after the incident, Defendant regularly called C.H. "want[ing] to do stuff" to him.

C.H. did not tell anyone about the incident right away. He specifically did not tell his parents because his mother had suffered several heart attacks, and he was afraid the news would cause her to have another heart attack. In September 2003, C.H. told his friend S.H. what had happened at Defendant's house. The two boys decided to alert school officials who, in turn, called the Hendersonville Police Department.

C.B. met Defendant through his friend M.K. M.K. introduced Defendant as his "uncle." On or about 21 February 2003, C.B. and S.H. came to see M.K. at his home. They expected to sleep there, but M.K.'s mother did not want the two boys to spend the night. Therefore, M.K. arranged for all three boys to sleep over at Defendant's home. Defendant picked them up and drove them to his house.

After they arrived at Defendant's home, Defendant told S.H. and C.B. they could sleep upstairs. He then poured the boys coconut rum shots and gave them wine. On another occasion in the spring of 2003, M.K., C.B. and S.H. spent an evening at Defendant's house watching pornography, smoking marijuana, and drinking alcohol. M.K. provided the marijuana. The marijuana was kept in a container under the bed in which M.K. slept at Defendant's house and in Defendant's garage. M.K. told C.B. that Defendant "stole" the marijuana while they were on a vacation trip to Maine.

C.B. described Defendant as "touchy feely as in he would hug us and kiss [S.H.] and [M.K.] on the forhead [sic] and the cheek." C.B. spent the night at Defendant's home five or six times. On each occasion, pornographic tapes were available for him to watch. C.B. was fifteen at the time.

On or about 30 May 2003, C.B., S.H., M.K. and C.A. went to Defendant's home. C.A., who was sixteen at the time, first met Defendant on this occasion. Defendant cooked a meal for the boys and served them wine and beer. Later that evening, Defendant made strawberry daiquiris for the boys. C.A. consumed a glass of wine, two daiquiris, and two to three beers, after which he was "pretty well drunk." After Defendant went to bed, the boys smoked marijuana which was obtained by M.K. from "a Tupperware thing" under M.K.'s bed. C.A., who visited Defendant's home five or six times, was also aware that "a stash" of marijuana was kept in Defendant's garage.

In June 2003, C.A. gave Defendant ten to fifteen dollars for Defendant to buy him a six pack of beer and a forty-ounce beer. On 9 August 2003, C.B. went to Defendant's home with M.K., S.H. and other friends while Defendant was not at home. C.B. and S.H. observed a brown box of marijuana in the garage and in a tub under a bed. C.B. also observed marijuana at Defendant's home on 16 August and 22 August 2003.

At Defendant's home on 6 September 2003, Defendant told C.B., M.K. and S.H. that there were pornographic videos in his television cabinet. While the video was playing, Defendant stood in the room and watched portions of it with the boys. C.A. testified that he watched "pornographic images" every time he visited Defendant's home.

S.H. testified that he visited Defendant's home five or six times during the summer of 2003. "We'd go over there and we'd drink and smoke marijuana and smoke cigars, and [Defendant] supplied all those." Defendant told him that there was "`beer in the fridge[,]'" he showed him where the liquor cabinet was, and told S.H. and his friends (C.B. and C.A.) to "`help yourself.'" S.H. was seventeen at the time.

Joshua Hemsath, a thirty-year-old former employee of Defendant, testified that he bought marijuana from Defendant multiple times over a six- to nine-month period of time between 2002 and 2003, and that he had personally observed marijuana in the freezer at Defendant's home. He paid Defendant $90.00 an ounce. Hemsath stated that Defendant told him he had gone to Maine with another law enforcement officer to hunt, and while they were there, they spotted marijuana growing in a field. Defendant told Hemsath that they harvested the marijuana and brought it back. Hemsath estimated the quantity of the marijuana that Defendant brought back from Maine to be five to ten pounds.

Fourteen-year-old P.S. testified that he first met Defendant at a DARE camp in the summer of 2002. In March 2003, P.S. was placed at Grandfather Home for Children after sexual misconduct involving four people in the fall of 2002. In February 2003, when P.S. was in the sixth grade, he ran away from home on several occasions and began visiting Defendant at his pawn shop to practice archery. On one particular visit four days before P.S. was to go to Grandfather Home, Defendant stood behind P.S. to show him how to place his hands on the bow to shoot the arrow more effectively. Suddenly, Defendant reached inside of P.S.'s pants and fondled him. P.S. immediately slapped Defendant's hands. Defendant told P.S. to never do that again.

On the following day, Defendant asked P.S. if Defendant "could masturbate [P.S.] and suck on [his] penis." P.S. agreed because Defendant wore a holstered gun and P.S. was afraid of him. While Defendant was performing oral sex on P.S., Defendant showed him a DVD cover that had a picture of naked men and women having sex. P.S. was thirteen years old when these events took place.

P.S. did not tell anyone about what Defendant had done until he learned that Defendant had been accused of molesting another child. He was at Grandfather Home at the time. P.S. testified that he did not know C.H., C.A., S.H., C.B., or M.K.

Detective David Adams testified that he was assigned to the case after a report...